The addition will include a stair hall. Courtesy | Michael G. Imber Architects

For the next two years, the Michael Alex Mossey Library will be under construction, according to Chief Administrative Officer Rich Péwé.

Last month, the Hillsdale College Board of Trustees approved all funding for the addition of a North Wing, which will begin construction during Spring Break and be completed by April 2027 according to Péwé. The total project will cost $43.7 million, with $10 million in binding pledges already donated.

“Students will have access to all the spaces in the library besides the circulation area,” Péwé said. “The Heritage Room will continue to be available. The renovation will be messy.”

When students return from break, they can no longer enter through the west doors of the library. The entrance will be blocked off to build the North Wing, spiral staircase, and new circulation desk. Instead, they must enter through a temporary first-floor entrance by the Heritage Room, or via the northern, third-floor entrance by the outdoor stairs. The student path and gate will be moved further east, toward the side of Delp Hall.

“The architect has talked about referencing the great libraries of the 19th and 20th centuries in America and in Europe, at Oxford, and places like that,” Library Director Maurine McCourry said. “A lot of the spaces will be intended specifically for reading and study, quiet contemplation.”

According to architect firm Michael G. Imber architect Alice Arnn, the drafting team looked to reflect both the liberal arts tradition and the college’s history in the redesign.

“The original master plan references many American and European examples with the understanding that the college fits within the history of western education, but we also found much to emulate in a master plan that the College commissioned in 1944 to commemorate its centennial,” Arnn said. “Our library looks back to English examples and the early 20th century language of American liberal arts colleges specifically — to the work of Christopher Wren, Edwin Lutyens, John Russell Pope, and Paul Cret.”

The breezeway connecting the library to the Grewcock Student Union will be completely blocked off to create the new facade. Students looking to enter the union from the south must detour around the building, using the paved path to the east.

The college has already blocked off student access to the Ludwig Von Mises Room and study rooms on the second floor of the library, to make room for library staff usage.

“All of us in tech services will be moving into those study rooms,” McCourry said. “So those are going to be closed, but we are going to move the tables out. All the seats for studying that we currently have, we’re going to be able to keep all of those available. They’ll just be kind of squished together.”

Because part of the addition will be above the college maintenance tunnels, and soil conditions are currently quite soft, the construction crew will begin the project by building micropile foundations underground, as well as by demolishing the colonnade, according to Péwé.

“We are getting more restrooms, but during the construction, we’re only going to have four,” McCourry said. “We’ll have the four single-stall restrooms. We will put family restroom signs on them, because there is no way that we will have two men’s and two women’s restrooms throughout the entire building.”

The next two years will see some substantial renovations. The North Wing addition will include multiple seminar rooms, a large classical reading room, spaces called “parlors,” and a modern classroom. According to Péwé, the circulation center and staff work room’s ceilings will be replaced, the main staircase will be replaced with a spiral staircase, and a light monitor will be installed by the new school year. The two-story addition, undercroft and exterior grand staircase will be completed by May 2027.

“We don’t currently have immediate plans to renovate any of the rest, apart from the circulation desk,” Péwé said. “However, if there is room in the budget towards the end of the project, we may replace carpet and some of the most worn furniture.”

According to McCourry, Mossey Library was originally built in 1971 but was only two stories at the time. The library’s current foyer was connected to the since-demolished Kresge Center for Traditional Studies. In 1994, the Heritage Room, third floor, and eastern half of the library were built, bringing in the current flooring, wallpaper and furniture the college has today. In 2005, the old Carr Library, north of Mossey, was torn down to build the Grewcock Student Union.

“We are going to try very hard to keep all the same services, to keep all of the collections accessible,” McCourry said. “Some of the special collections will be a little harder to get because they’re going to be going into storage.”

According to Arnn, the San Antonio firm Michael G. Imber Architects is looking to expand the aesthetic choices of Christ Chapel to the rest of campus.

“Christ Chapel set a new standard for the quality of architecture and introduced a much more classical language and civic scale to the campus,” Arnn said. “Central Hall was built in the French Second Empire style, and it is very American and even midwestern in its materiality and detailing.”